Before leaving Korea, Min Ju, my host family guide, gave me a couple of very easy Korean recipes to try at home. (a) One of the recipes was for making the Korean ravioli also known as Man-doo-guk. Man-doo-guk is popular as a New Year’s Day food. It is served with rice cakes.
(b) I learnt to make Bi-Bim-Bop. To make Bi-Bim-Bop, one needs rice, vegetables, beef or chicken (can be Vegetarian also), sesame oil and red pepper paste (Go-chu-ang). They can be mixed in a hot bowl. This was one of my favourite dishes in Korea along with the South Korean barbeque.
(c) I also received a recipe to make ‘Baek-suk,’ a well seasoned Korean-style chicken soup. For this a whole chicken is stuffed with ginseng, milk and Chinese Pearl Barley. It can be seasoned if desired. It needs to be boiled for 50 minutes until chicken is cooked and becomes tender. It can be served with plain rice. The water used for cooking the chicken becomes the soup. It can be seasoned with salt and pepper.
Commentary by Zaina Budaly, 2nd Year Creative Writing
Photos by Dr Mahinda Deegalle
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